thanks to my panel and all of you for watching. i'm paul gigot, see you right here next week. ♪ >> on fox news watch, i hear you have some questions for me. >> president obama on his first post election news conference taking on tough issues and tough questions from the white house press. >> congratulations, by the way, i've never seen you lose. >> well, maybe not such tough questions, but i did get testy when asked about the white house spin and the benghazi terror attack. >> if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> the president of the united states did not tell the american people the truth about the attacks that took four grave americans' lives that went on for eight, seven hours for which we were totally unprepared. >> how did the media handle this showdown?

a new scandal involving now former cia director general petraeus and an extramarital affair, a florida socialite, a bare chested fbi agent and is this a concern or a washington smoke screen? >> i don't think anyone on either side of the aisle underestimates the difficulties. >> both sides work to gain the high ground in dealing with the looming fiscal cliff, but the media seem to be one-sided in the details. which side do you think they're on? and it's in with the new, but are the old staying, too. >> oh, you've always asked that question except to mitch mcconnell. >> on the panel this week, writer and fox news contributor judy miller. jove oldman, talk radio and jim pinkerton contributing editor the american conservative magazine, and alan colmes, author of thank

liberals for saving america and i'm jon scott, fox news watch is on right now. >> this is about the role she played around four dead americans when it seems to be that the story coming out of the administration and she's the point person, is so disconnected to reality, i don't trust her. and the reason i don't trust her is because i think she knew better and if she did know better she shouldn't be the voice of america. somebody has got to start paying a price around this place, but i am dead set on making sure we don't promote anybody that was an essential player in the benghazi debacle. >> as i've said before, she made an appearance at the request of the white house, in which she gave her best understanding of the

intelligence that had been provided to her. if senator mccain and senator graham and ot to go after somebody, they should go after me. and i'm happy to have that discussion with them, but for them to go after the u.n. ambassador, who had nothing to do with benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received and besmirch her reputation is outrageous. >> that began with south carolina senator lindsey graham giving his view of ambassador susan rice and her role in the administration spin on the benghazi terror attacks and the president's reactions to those statements at his first news conference since being reelected. mr. obama, defending ms. rice, but his defense has actually added more to the controversy.

senator graham reacted to the president by saying, mr. president, don't think for one minute i don't hold you responsible for benghazi, i think you failed as commander-in-chief before, during and after the attack. so much to get to first on this, jim, the showdown between the two senators, graham and mccain and the president. abc's terry moran called it an obama smackdown. "the washington post" john mccain's benghazi, and some say it's about mccain being bitter about losing to obama four years ago. >> i think five names and a conflagration, and number one petraeus and broadwell and number two, benghazi, benghazi, petraeus, broadwell, military ethics, mccain obama reduction, and fifth, the susan rice story, which life imitates art. if you go back and watch the

movie advise and content shall the novel then turned movie, it was a south carolina senator opposing the president's nomination as secretary of state that is the whole dynamic of the movie and i'm it willing you, find it on youtube or net flicks because it really parallels, echo out. >> and if it's a media we'll turn it into a media review. the media had an opportunity to ask hard questions and didn't get any at the news conference, why not. >> the format is not controlled to follow-up. he picks the people he's going to call on. people can't respond and say, wait a minute, mr. president, we want a follow-up on this. this is his chosen forum. i'm surprised he hasn't used it more, because we do know that until the election, he was actually hiding from the media on this issue. >> alan, maybe you can explain

the president's-- >> i'm here to speak for the president. >> and his defense ambassador rice added fuel to the fire. you heard him say that the white house sent her out on to the sunday morning talk shows and then he says don't go after her because she didn't have anything to do with benghazi, so why is she on the sunday morning talk shows. >> she represents the administration, and the administration decided to put her out on the sunday morning talk shows, what was her involvement with benghazi, was she part of a coverup. >> of course not. there were strains of intelligence coming in. and david ignatius washington post, reporting early on there was a report video. the president himself used aed word terror in the rose garden and the day after. it seems like the right wing media is trying to make something here, tried to do it during the the election as if it would somehow change the results of election and which

it didn't. and continuing the rap on the president that i don't think was a coverup. >> and then the media seemed to love the defense of ambassador rice, the president. one said, there is no damsel in distress and obama's eternalistic bravado of a top administrative official is going to come back to haunt him. she's a big girl in a big position and she should defend herself and what she said. >> i don't think it's necessarily a right wing smackdown of susan rice, it's the liberal media make it go about john mccain's comments about susan rice and john mccain never used the word filibuster. he said he would have serious issues susan rice as secretary of state. i agree with judy, what is susan rice doing representing the administration on these talk shows? she had nothing to to do with this, why is she the point person. >> it's not her fault. maybe have an administration

with putting her out there, but not to say she shouldn't be secretary of state because she's somehow wrong here, but we have a fair amount of excavating to do, and on friday, peter king, i think an exclusive for fox and megyn kelly saying listen we now know that the cia, peter king knows that the cia initial chronology, benghazi's acts was altered somewhere along the way, did susan rice alter it herself, does she know who altered it. and the hearings under oath are going to be epic, somehow the petraeus version, which petraeus is willing to explain now that he's liberated from the obama administration, rice her fate is going to answer for a whole bunch of coverups. if she's such a shrinking violet and needs the president to defend herself and doesn't

know about benghazi or libya, why would she be nominated secretary of state. would you nominate such a light weight. >> and she's not out on this particular issue, it's not a sexist issue-- >> he didn't do that for eric holder on fast and furious, did he, alan? >> we're going to answer or try to, so many other questions about this story, including the angle jim just brought up, whatever happened brought up, whatever happened to david petraeus 4g lte is the fastest.

so, which supeast 4g lte service would yochoose, based on this chart ? don't rush into it, i'm not looking for the fastest answer. obviously verizon. okay, i have a different chart. going that way, does that make a difference ? look at verizon. it's so much more than the other ones. so what if we just changed the format altogether ? isn't that the exact same thing ? it's pretty clear. still sticking with verizon. verizon. more 4g lte coverage than all other networks combined.

>> after a long eight months period of what you might call silence and after the reelection, the president holds his 16th full-blown news conference of his president sich sy. if you do the math the president plays golf six times more often than he gives news conferences and the news conferences don't last as long, don't take as long as a

round of golf. why is he so reticent to get up to the press corps and does the press corps use the time-wisely. >> as we've seen in this week's debacle. the press corps does not use the time. and this is what he can control. this is the pattern for the president, goes for the soft media and soft questions and his popularity rises as the number of questions about his policy continue to increase. >> jake tapper at abc asked him some tough questions. our ed henry asked him some tough questions. and then there was this from christy parsons of the chicago tribune. >> thank you, mr. president. and congratulations, by the way. one quick follow-up. >> when i was running for state senate, there. >> that's right i was. >> christy and i go back a ways. >> i've never seen you lose, i wasn't working that one time. >> there you go. (laughter) >> all right, alan, appropriate? >> beautiful, beautiful moment.

what do you have against love? come on. you of course chose a particular heart warming moment there. this is a president, that sat down with bill o'reilly a couple of times, i don't think he's afraid of the press and to conflate the number of times that he, or some kind of counter punctual things with the number of times he played golf versus the number of times he had a news conference, we can play that game with any president, he's not supposed to have recreation, a pardon me, way to look at that. if playing golf is a horrible thing. >> jon: we report, you decide. >> and the whole thing of this idea that it's a real news conference there, were eight questions, one question no follow-ups, and the reporter at the end i believe from bloomberg tried to ask the president a question and the question listened to the same thing and i'm sorry, i can't answer that, because it would set a precedents. >> it's a good question. >> it's a great question, i can't answer it it. that's unbelievable to me and he gets away with it.

>> and 16 news conference ises more than bush had. he's had plenty of news conferences, certainly more media available than our last couple of presidents. >> and then we get to the mess involving former general, well, former general and former cia director david petraeus. it was announced, first of all, after the election that he is resigning as head of the cia, because of an extramarital affair. did the press push hard enough on that? and you know, any indications that it helped to snuff out the benghazi-- >> well, headline in washington post, holder defen defends... i think it's been pretty well documented that the fbi and the justice department and everybody else at that level knew all about this and now, we just have to believe attorney general holder and everybody else that nobody at the white house knew until, you know, two days after the election and that the record national television didn't know until election day. these are stories even a fawning press, by the way, alan, president obama was last

on bill o'reilly in 2008, it's been a while. >> i think he did it once since then during a half time show. >> hard hitting half time. >> everybody watching by the way in the super bowl, but also eric cantor's office-- >> it's an unbelievable beltway juicy story ever, frankly i mentioned earlier and i think you're going to see a change, the first week or so, petraeus had a sympathetic press and all of these reporters been embedded with him, pun intended in iraq and afghanistan, were kind of fans including on the left. once it became clear though late last week that he was going to say that the cia actually did a good job and different talking points you're going to see the press on him turn big time as they say he's the enemy, he's no longer part of obama administration lying about how we didn't know and it's ambiguous. >> jon: bucking the administration line on this is trouble for him, do you think? >> well, i think that the

mean, the line on general petraeus or director petraeus changed dramatically this week. we did see kind of shock and not awe. shock and horror at the initial reports of why he was stepping down. but now, you're getting an examination by many in the media of the relationship between the media and general petraeus and his great ability to manipulate and curry favor with the media. michael hastings had an extremely interesting piece in buzz feed that pointed out that some of the people who wrote books about him. linda robinson actually went off to work for him in cent-com after they wrote their work, he's very good at that and i think that have to be acknowledged and beginning to be acknowledged in the media. >> jon: we have to talk about this next on news watch. are the media pushing for a plunge off the fiscal cliff? >> the senate has already passed a law like this, the democrats in the house are ready to pass a law like this,

and i hope republicans in the house come on board, too. >> president obama putting pressure on republicans to do it his way or face the plunge offer the fiscal cliff and the media take the cue in the blame game, too, pointing fingers at the g.o.p. for standing their ground. will the pressure of bad press force their hands? answers next on news watch. [ lisa ] my name's lisa, and chantix helped me quit. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. it put me at ease that you could smoke on the first week. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix

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>> i don't think anyone on either side of the aisle und underestimates the difficulty facing us, but i think the spirit of cooperation you've seen over the last week from myself and my team, from democrats across the aisle, from the president have

created an atmosphere where i think that i remain optimistic. >> we face a very clear deadline that requires us to make some big decisions on jobs, taxes and deficits by the end of the year. both parties voted to set this deadline and i believe that both parties can work together to make these decisions in a balanced and responsible way. >> president obama and house leader john boehner before him sounding somewhat positive on working out a plan to divert the fiscal cliff. they met in person at the white house on friday, along with house minority leader nancy pelosi and senate majority leader harry reid and minority leader senator mitch mcconnell. jeff, it seems like the media are poised to blame republicans if the deal falls apart. >> if you look at the polling, over half the country believes it's the g.o.p.'s fault if this deal falls apart. why that? the democrats and the president himself have done an effective job of essentially trashing republicans saying

that this whole, the reason that there's a, you know, there isn't a deal in the first place, because it's their fault and that's not true. it's both parties that did this and the president particularly not showing leadership and kicking the can down the road and creating a super committee. the media is not covering this correctly at all. reporting that the president want a deficit package. 1 trillion from tending the war and that's going to happen and another trillion from spending cuts in the past so they are he completely ignoring that and again, it's not spending cuts that the president is going to agree to in the end. it's reducing the growth rate in spending and complete the owners suggest he's going all in on the spending cuts. >> and reports that the networks blame the fiscal cliffs on the congress and the g.o.p. 16 times more than president obama. >> and always talking about, having the conservatives are being blamed. the fact is here is a president reelected you can use the word mandate or not, but see that the republican congress which is viewed as a do-nothing congress and the media is accurate when it says it's up to the republicans now to come forward because

they've rejected what he offered the last time. >> jon: all right. jim. >> i must say to me the most interesting story of this is the submarine story of the left, paul krugman, carol, others, saying it's a horrible mistake to do this, it's 1937 all over again in terms of tax increases, spending cuts in the middle of a tentative recovery. i'm not as convinced that the left of the democratic party or left of the country is going to hold still for the deal. it's sort of a centrist beltway thing that the left opposes and right opposes and it's president obama, "the washington post" editorial board, new york times, a few others kind of in the middle there. we'll see. >> jon: the media loved it this week when the president met with some the heads of major corporations, but there weren't really any small business people represented and the question, is it just a photo op? >> well, i think the president is reaching out, he's making an effort to meet with a lot of different people. it is interesting that the first people who saw him after

his election were union people and that shouldn't be surprising, but the media did take note of that. but i think that, mr. boehner's conciliatory attitude reflects exactly as said, the politics of the situation, and david brooks had an interesting column saying not only irresponsible to take the country over the fiscal cliff, but it's bad politics for the republicans. i think that accounts for the mood of con vifalty and consensus. >> and the media says is bad politics-- >> speaking of that the new yorker had a blaring headline this week, is obama willing to leap off the fiscal cliff? let's hope so. take that for what it's worth. next on news watch, last thanksgiving, abo 2 million people tried to deep-fat-fry their turkey. 15 succeeded in setting their houses on fire. at christmas, the was a lot of driving ovee river and through the woods. and a lite bit of skidding on the ice and taking out grandma's garage door. so while you're celebrating, allstate will be standing by.

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roo. >> yesterday, we did not have a majority but weed the gavel. excuse me. we don't have.... [ laughter ] >> we don't have -- we have our own gavel. [ laughter ] >> jon: nancy pelosi this week making known she will run to stay on as leader of the house. >> i'll go with wishful thinking but good for those in the media that like to have n pel